THE OLD HOME WEEK BOOK
History of the Village of Prospect, PA

Transcribed and Donated by Robert A. Stumpf

Chapter XXII

Reminiscences of Thomas Critchlow

By the Rev. G.W. Critchlow

In Thomas Carlyle's delightful reminiscences of his father, which have been published since that great writer's death, there are these beautiful words about that rude and sturdy stonemason from whom he sprung:-- "I feel to my father -- so great though so neglected, so generous also toward me -- a strange tenderness, and mingled with pity and reverence peculiar to the case, infinitely soft and near my heart. Was he not a sacrifice to me? Had I stood in his place, could he not have stood in mine, and more? Thou good father! well may I forever honor thy memory. Surely that act is not without its reward. And was not nature great, out of such materials to make such a man?" It is a beautiful tribute and noble, but as we read it we are ready, I think, to feel that the man who could deserve it was even greater than the man who could write it. Carlyle gave another evidence of his appreciation of that father by standing an hour in the rain before the bookstall which he refused to keep years before at his father's command.

In imitation of Carlyle's best appreciation I am taking up a labor of love and veneration in an earnest endeavor to collate some of the attainable facts concerning the life and labors of my father, Thomas Critchlow, a man who, quaint and exacting, had no superior among his contemporaries in that age of pioneer life. There was no one who endured greater stress of poverty, or battled against heavier hardships, or was handicapt with more hindrances. About the time of his birth, October 5, 1812, his mother was made a widow by the cruelties of warfare, the father, John Critchlow, a corporal in U.S. service, haaving been killed or died in service, near the city of Buffalo, N.Y. This widowed mother and a crippled sister, a year his senior, were the first burden left on the new-born babe. How he strove to supply their wants for threescore years and ten is a pathetic story. In this he was a loyal imitator of his grandfather, William Critchlow, whose heroic venture out from shelter to pick off the commander of the British forces at Saratoga in 1777, is so graphically told by Mr. A.W. McCullough. William Critchlow took care of his old blind mother and his father for many years, and gave asylum to his wife's aged and decrepit father. This illustrates the truth, "The bravest are the tenderest."

Forbears and Kindred

The earliest forbear of the Critchlow clan, David Critchlow, came to America from Ireland. He settled first in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, about the middle of the eighteenth century. There were no roads. Only the blazed trees marked the course of the venturesome pioneer, and many years lapsed before a wagon could be drawn through the dense woodland. At a burial a chestnut log was split and hollowed out to receive the corpse. The two halves of the log, pinned together, formed the casket which was lowered in the earth in joyous hope of a glorious resurrection.

We know the names of two sons, William and James, who were born to David Critchlow. Both were scouts. Both entered the services of the Continental army. William Critchlow and James Amberson were the scouts who discovered Massy Harbison. She and her children had been captured by the Indians in May 1792. Her three-year-old boy was killed and scalped before the mother's horrified gaze, a five-year-od boy tomahawked and scalped. After fifteen years of excruciating hardships she reached the fort and her friends.

The Battle at Saratoga

Let us push back the hand of time to October, 1777, when a great victory was won on the field of Saratoga -- in its results one of the decisive battles of the world, for it won for us the allegience of France, without the aid of whose army and navy as well as financial assistance, independence, judging from a human standpoint, might not have been attained. The hero of that battle was not General Gates, the American commander. Benedict Arnold who by his impetuous charges broke the enemy's ranks and led to the surrnder of Burgoyne and the British army, had in his following one soldier whose solitary shot brought on the confusion that ended in disaster and defeat.

I cannot do better than repeat the graphic account which Mr. A.W. M'Cullough gives in his "Centennial History of Mt. Nebo." Nathan Slater who spent his boyhood days and early manhood on a farm adjoining that of James Critchlow in Forward township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, vouches for the correctness of the story, saying that he heard James Critchlow tell the story of his brother, William "many, many times." The following is quoted from "An Address, Historic and Reminiscent," pages 16 and 17:

In the battle of Saratoga, Oct. 7, 1777, which was one of the decisive battles of the Revolutionary War, Colonel Daniel Morgan's riflemen took a conspicuous part. The British were ably commanded by Generals Burgoyne and Frazier. General Gates commanded the American forces. One of the division commanders under him in that engagement was Benedict Arnold. As the battle was in progress General Gates discovered by the aid of a field glass, that a certain officer on the British side was directing the movements of the army from a point that commanded the view of te American line of battle. Calling Colonel Morgan to him, he pointed out the British officer who was busily engaged in dispatching orderlies hither and thither to different parts of the field, and said to him: "That General is maneuvering his forces with strategic ability; he must be gotten out of the way, somehow; will you undertake to dislodge him?" Morgan replied" "Yes, sir, I'll see that your wishes are carried out." and galloping back to his riflemen, he selected a squad of a half dozen of his best marksmen, among them William Critchlow, James Critchlow and Thomas Scott, and sent them to an abandoned house located at an angle to the right of the Amrican line of battle.The "sharpshooters" were soon at work in an effort to put the British officer out of the engagement; but the distance was too great for the carrying power of their rifles, and they found that they were wasting their ammunition. Around the building, and between it and the knoll onwhich the British General and his aides were stationed, was a stretch of land cleared off and burnt over, on which there was a rank growth of fireweed. William Critchlow said to his brother James and other comrades, "I am going to slip out, and crawl through the tall weeds to a point one hundred paces nearer to yonder "rise". and see if I cannot reach them from that point." Suiting the action to the word, he started on his perilous undertaking and, walking half-bent, counting his steps as he went, he stopped a hundred yards from the building,and rising and taking quick aim, he fired, and started on a run back to the building. As he ran, the British musket-balls cut the poke-weed all around him, but he reached the place of safety unscathed. When his trusty rifle crackd, his companions in the building noticed a commotion among the red-coated soldiers, around the gallant commander on the low eminence. The officer was seen to reel in the saddle and fall backwards in the arms of his aides. The ranks of the British wavered, and were thrown into disorder by the loss of their commander. Morgan's riflemen, taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, charged upn them, and by the aid of Arnold's division supporting them, te British were dislodged, and Gates won the day, taking several thousand prisoners. It was learned the following day that the officer who fell before the unerring aim of William Critchlow's rifle, was General Frazier, next in command to General Burgoyne. He was shot through the body and survived but a few hours. That incident of the horrors of war made one of the founders of Mount Nebo the Hero of Saratoga. He lies in an old churchyard overgrown with briers, on a hill south of the Big Creek, on a part of the Critchlow farm, now owned by Levi Slater.

WIlliam Critchlow married Mary ("Polly") Burnsides, daughter of John Burnsides, born in Scotland. To this union were born David, John and Samuel who died in U.S. service, David and William, Martha (Mrs. John Gray), Margaret (Mrs. Isaac David)' Amy (Mrs. Robert M'Candless)' Mary (Mrs. John Cochran). These all have fought a good fight of faith and have entered into that rest which remaineth.

Let us turn now to the record of an on-moving self-reliant, purposeful,resourceful life that has nothing of war yet was ever a battle, the life of Thomas Critchlow, whose father yielded his life in the second war with England. When news came of the death of John Critchlow, the widowed mother had, as the sum of her earthly belongings, an old gray mare and a cow, a crippled girl and a new-born babe. About the same time her father had lost his farm. Such was the impoverishment that however much the widow yearned to know te details, she was too poor to follow any clew that she may have found. All she knew was that her strong supporter had fallen a sacrifice to the savagery of war, and that he filled an unknown grave along the shores of Lake Erie. That precious body made all the earth dear to her. That she looked to heaven with hopeful eyes is very true. She was a woman of only one book, and that Book was well-thumbed. I saw her often reading, but it was always the same Old Book. She could repeat Psalm after Psalm, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount and many of the rich portions of the Word. In Sophia Gray, born September 24, 1784, who in 1809 married John Critchlow, born March 30, 1786, Thomas Critchlow had a mother of pluck and refinement. She was able to fight the wolf at her door, and to give her boy some of the choicest chunks of wisdom garnered from the Old Book.

The Primitive School

In an old shop beside the home on the old Gray farm is the room in which Thomas Critchlow continued his early school days. In mother's arms and on mother's knees he had learned the first lessons of love and of God. The first regular school house, built for that purpose, which he attended, was near the site of the Fitzsimmon's Schoo House. This was a mile and a half from home, which the boy thought and afterwards put it, "a good, long walk." The heavy snowfalls, the unbeaten path, the scanty clothing tested the endurance of the boy who wanted to go to school. He next went to the Hustleton school on the Butler road. The names of Alexander Purviance, Daniel raham and William Wallace are given as teachers. Alexander Purviance taught several winters.Of him Thomas said, "He was a hard old teacher; licked like pounding oxen."

"Billy" Wallace taught in the Pierce or Wallace school near Bald Ridge. This school house is described as being in the woods. The building was 16X20 built of logs. The windows were holes in the walls and covered with greased paper.The floor was of puncheons, split logs. The roof was made of clap-boards, laid on logs and held in place by other logs. The seats were split logs set on pegs. The whole of one end was walled out for a chimney. Long logs of wood, so large that they had to be brought in on rollers, burnt in his chimney. The fire was kept in the center. The best light in the room was in this chimney, coming from the top. It was here, in the chimney corner, the boy learned his lessons. It was in this school he afterwards became teacher.

The text books were not many. The rudimental Rs, Reading, Riting and Rithmetic, were the full scope of this university. In reading, the text book was te New Testament. He spoke of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John as one of the reading lessons. After nearly three-score and ten years he says, "I have it yet, and love it."

The specimens of his workmanship, preserved in two or three folios, show him to have been worthy of first prizes. In 'Rithmetic he reached the "Double Rule of Three," the acme of attainment under the teachers of that age. In square and cube root he advanced beyond his teachers. The penmanship with which he engrosses his work would do honor to a writing teacher. None of his children or grandchildren can vie with him in the passing art of caligraphy. They have to resort to machines.

A Public School Teacher

"Ole Billy Wallace" had taught the Pierce school so long that the name changed to the Wallace school. The people were heartily tired of him and wanted a change -- "Oslerze" the ancient pedagogue. "Ole Billy" fought the oncoming flood of opposition. The sop that satisfied the discarded teacher was the privilege of having the new teacher to board. Even in that pioneer age the one who has fed on public patronage, had acquired the art of gripping fast the source of supply.

The new teacher happened to be young Thomas Critchlow. "General" Purviance examined the applicant in the branches to be taught. The three Rs were faithfully investigated. One question was asked in Grammar and -- answered. Whether the answer was correct is not known. The examiner didn't say, and the examined surely didn't know. He avers that he "knew no more about grammar than a dog." Afterwards as president of the school-board it became his duty to examine applicants for positions as teacher. When it came to the subject of grammar he asked one question. If the applicant had the temerity to venture an answer, there was no further sailing in unknown waters.If he declined to answer his general averages were to decide his fitness. Ignorance of grammar did not diqualify for teaching at that age and place.

The Wallace school was across the Connoquenessing from the Bald Ridge farm. The teacher wo lived on the Bald Ridge farm had either to make a long detour to the bridge up the creek or ford the creek. He manufactured a box raft on which he used to ferry himself across. Sometimes Mr. Wallace would give him a horse to take him home. He always went home on Friday to cut wood and "see whether things were in order."

He had learned in the old school and taught somewhat after the fashion. One of the daughters of that r. Purviance who "licked like pounding oxen", tells that Mr. Critchlow came into the school with an ox-gad which he brought down on he floor with a vim that frightened the wits out of the little tots. But she said that he was "the best ever." Mr. Jared B. Wallace, a visitor at the "Old Home Week", Prospect, 1907, was a pupil of Thomas Critchlow in 1840, and himself a teacher in the same school in 1851, said the school in 1840 was the "best for diiscipline and progress."

While teaching the public school and afterwards he was also a singing school teacher. His singing schools drew learners from many miles. One or two octogenarians told me how they walked six miles to Thomas Critchlow's singings. Perhaps he was a gallant and desirable bachelor, a most delightful catch, a travelled young man who had been as far away as Pittsburgh where one day purchasing a singing-book he also got the small-pox -- he was only nineteen, a forceful, pushing fellow. At all events, the maids from far and near went to the singing school. A Mr. Sam. Wilson, who afterward became a singing school teacher, told me of his learning that "marvelous tune" Benevento, at Thomas Critchlow's singings.

The Farmer and Budding Merchant

The lad had early learned the art of toil. The gray mare lived until the boy followed hr in working corn. At the age of sixteen he had taken charge of affairs, "began for himself". When he was twenty-one he had a vendue, and at twenty-four he made the purchase of 300 acres of land in the territory known as the Bald Ridge. This was a district which the Indians were in the habit of firing in order to get grass for their horses. One of the white settlers was accused of a similar prank. He had a lot of cattle which he browsed on other's property. After a year our farmer sold half his real estate for $200, more than he paid for the whole 300 acres. His income as school teacher went into real estate.

That the Lord never intended him to become rich is evident. In1883 he revisited the Bald Ridge territory, and found one oil well that was pourng out 10,000 barrels of oil a day. That oil was there fifty years previous. He remarked, "If the Lord had wanted me to have that oil He would have opened up the fountain." It was in the same territory that his mother endured the greatest hardships.

In1884(?), he began his career of storekeeping. Gilmore Campbell had his powder mills in full blast, and was anxious to have a store convenient. He urged our farmer and school teacher to make the venture. The plan was to have the workmen who received powder for wages, trade powder for goods. There was very little money in the country. The venture proved to be paying. While the hauling of heavy loads of powder to Pittsburgh was attended with some risks, the profit justified. Farm produce of various kinds were added to the loads. The entrance into the city was always attended by a procession of people who wanted butter, eggs and poultry.

The powder was usually sold to a grocer in Diamond Market, Pittsburgh, and hauled to a magazine three miles away in the woods. There was need of inspection sometimes, for stuff that was not powder was palmed off. Old Billy Purviance had bought a lot of suspicious stuff to market, for which he could find no purchaser. At last a purchaser was found "pervided the thing burnt." Old Billy looked on with growing anxiety as the powder was poured on the counter and the flint struck. He after expressed his jubilation, "The dinged stuff burnt."

One time when taking a load of powder to Pittsburgh he had Mr. Heckert as driver. A summer shower came up and Mr. Heckert was allowed to get a half mile ahead with his load until the electric display had ended.

Though these trips to Pittsburgh took four days of the week and left only two days for keeping his store open for trade, his trade increased. In 1852 he removed his store from the vicinity of the Powder Mills to Petersville. His customers came from as far north as Prospect and from great distances east and south. The two days on which he kept store were real market days. There was no room for loafers and no time for loitering. For forty years he adhered to the habit of opening his store only two days in the week, and his customers came in increasng numbers. In a long experience he had learned to know what people wanted, and he had everything that peope wanted -- and something more.

Although he made money in storekeeping it was sometimes a question whether he kept store for the purpose of making money. He was always exacting to the last cent and always giving more lavishly as he was more exacting. Did he want a church, he built it himself. Did he want a minister, he opened his home and his purse for supply. Did he want a Sunday School, his way to supply was through his own income. He never asked another to assist in his social or religious enterprises. Churches, preachers, Sunday School supplies, light, heat, repairs, he provided as freely as he furnished bread to his family. His Sunday School library had three or four hundred books, selected with a discrimination that made them worth reading. Trashy stories were not tolerated. It was good, nourishing food that was provided.

"In loving Remembrance of King Jesus and your Sainted Father."

"Memories of Prospect"

These words were on a Christmas card which was attached to a gift in the year 1905. The "memories" were of help that proved to be genuine and substantial. Thomas Critchlow did not consult when he thought of rendering help. He found ways to reach the poor, unknown to the public and yet efficient. He told nobody, made no parade of his liberality. Judged byhis refusals to sign lists of contributions, he was a harsh, unfeeling man. The writer of the above sentiment had learned otherwise.

His Religious Convictions

The last words I heard my father utter were spoken when I bade good bye a few weeks before he entered eternal rest. "I am trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and hope for mercy in His grace." The tremor in his voice, the tears on his cheeks told the fervor of his speech. That faith was the secret of his strength. He had forgotten all about services to the needy, of sermons and offerings, only to rest on the Rock of Ages. Always a reader of God's Word, a man of prayer in the family, at his table, in the sanctuary, he never paraded his religion nor disputed with others on religious beliefs. He sometimes conducted a public service in his own church when there was no minister to lead, and when there were no services in the other churches in the village. The sermons which he read publicly were the plainest Gospel discourses to be found, Episcopal, Lutheran or Presbyterian sources were all alike. If he found in any sermon any denunciation of the denominations, he marked that to be omitted. Calls to Christ, calls to prayer, calls to faith and faithfulness and to services met his approval and were read to the people who came to the public worship as he was conducting it. Some searching sermons by Canon Ryle, some of Alexander's "Practical Sermons" were used. These with the singing of hymns and prayer made up the service. There was no display, no straining after effects. The only thing sought was a quiet expression of faith in praise and prayer. He was not concerned about fruit.

Years ago a young farmer lad in England listened to the reading of a sermon in a hay loft by the farmer who employed him. It was the weeky custom of that farner to gather his family and employees around him in that loft and there read to them one of Spurgeon's sermons. As the young lad listened, his heart grew strangely tender and within the depths of his soul he surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. The world owes much to that humble meeting, for the young lad grew up to be no other than Ian Maclaren, the author of the "Cure of Souls", and "The Bonnie Brier Bush", and the beloved pastor of a great church in Liverpool. One man writes, "The impression of that Godly man as he reads the Word and the sermon can never be effaced from my memory.

Though a man of strong convictions and firmly believing his own confession of faith, he was tolerant of the convictions of others. Mr. Lewis Roth gives this testimony to Thomas Critchlow's readiness to support other congregations: "One day Mr. Critchlow called me to him and said, 'My children attend your Sunday School and services. I want to do something for your church", and gave me ten dollars.

Writing now, almost a quarter century after his departure, I am trying to let this life speak his praises. Strict justice and great tenderness marked his life. He was known by the sobriquet, "Honest Tom." If any thought him harsh, it was because he had not reached their heart. Born in poverty, reared in hardships of the pioneer age, the stern lines which some saw, were only the lines of stuggle that came as he was learning the lessons of toil and push. Instead of a man of sternness, he was greatly fond of mirth and playfulness. He read and laughed at the criticisms in the papers. Some of them tickled him so much that he cut them out and pasted them on the blank pages of his Bible. And they were funny.

Neither was he without deeper sentiments which tell more of manhood than does the love of wit. He could think of home and fireside an church. Here are some words which he wrote in his Bible:-

Home --In hours of ambition and pleasure, we forget its sweetness; but let sickness or sadness come, and we return to it at once. Let the hollow hearts which feign the friendship which they o not feel,who offer one hand as a friend, that they may get the other in your pocket, stand revealed before us; let us know, however important we may be in our own estimate, that our places will soon be filled by others, then we whisper the magic word, HOME, and are comforted."

It may be original; it may be copied; but the fact that he had enough manhood to appreciate the tenderness of the sentiment is in evidence.

Estimation by Others

The appreciation of young men, clean, growing, intelligent young men is usually just and discriminating. The following was written by the Rev. T.B. Roth, in a personal letter, dated June 19, 1889:-

"We were sorry to hear of your father's illness, and hope he may survive it. I always had a great respect for him. The word respect does not cover it. It was what the Germans call, Ehrfurcht. I honored (ehre) him for his upright, straightforward way of doing things. I feared (furcht) him because of the mystery that in my mind always attached to him. Mingle these two sentiments and you have the feeling that was uppermost when I met him."

The Rev. Dr. J.R. Morris who for a time was pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church of Prospect, wrote from Jackson Center, Pa., Jan. 27, 1890:-"During the (about) two years of my association and acquaintance with your father, Thomas Critchlow, I had fair opportunities for the study of his Christian life. In all this, two qualities were prominent: 1, Purity of life; 2, Liberality of spirit in the support of the Gospel.

While his life was not without some of the common human weaknesses, it was quite well up to the Apostle's standard --"unblameable", indeed most commendably so. His liberality was markedly Christian, both in largeness of giving and the absence of any show in what was done. It is with pleasure that I give this tribute of esteem."

In the letter, dated, Albany, N.Y., January 28, 1890, in which the Rev. D. Luther Roth sent the closng appreciative estimate, he writes these sentiments:- "I had for him the most sincere regard, looking upon him as a model man who only wanted a wider sphere to be widely known and appreciated. The fiber of faithfulness, I believe to have been inwrought and ingrained to the depths of his nature. He was made of the stuff of which martyrs are made.

Mr. Thomas Critchlow who entered into his rest at Prospect, Pa., Dec., 29, 1889, after having passed by nine years the alloted three score and ten, was one of my boyhood's acquaintances. He came into the quiet village of my birth and there opened a general store which all through his afterlife was one of the leading establishments of its kind in the county. His career as a merchant was long and honorable as well as highly successful.

No man in the community ever commanded the confidence of the people more completely than he. As an indication of the hold on the affections of those with whom he came in contact, his peculiar method of conducting his business need only be mentioned. When he was absent from home his place of business was closed and his customers, never thinking of going elsewhere, waited patiently for his return that they mght deal with him and only him. In this way, while his store was open perhaps but two days of the week, he never lost a customer.

He was a taciturn, though not an unsocial man. It seemed as though before his mind the words of our Saviour were ever present, that for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account at the day of judgment. He quietly and without ostentation attended to his own business and yet no man of the community had the public welfare more at heart than he. The poor had in him a steadfast friend, and God alone knows how many such an one he had befriended in his own quiet way.

At his own expense and almost by the might of his own strong character, he maintained a church of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination, not esteeming himself too highly to do anything that was needful in keeping up the regular services while his strength endured. One of the most forceful lessons, in genuine piety that ever came before my eyes, and is stamped vividly in my recollection is the sight of that godly man reading the Word of God, when there was no minister in his church, leading in prayer, and conducting the whole service. The strong lines of that peaceful, firm and sainted face are engraven in my memory, from seeing him then and there, never to be obliterated. I was a bad boy, as were other boys who went into that church, but what we saw and heard helped to change us, we hope.

I remember going to Mr. Critchlow on one occasion in his store. I found him alone. I presented a subscription list which I was circulating, askinghim, at the same time whether he would be so good as to give me something toward buying an organ for our church

Which is "our church? he asked.

"The Lutheran."

He said nothing more, but went to the till and handd out one of the largest subscriptions I had received.

"Shall I put down your name or will you please do so?"

"No."

And that settled it.

It is such lives that set the power of the Gospel shining among men in a way to stir their hearts and change their lives. And though the church for which this good man did so much, has lost its distinctive name and gone into another denomination, yet the memory of Thomas Critchlow shall render it a hallowed spot to all who knew him there.

He was one of the most trustworthy, honorable and effcient business men the town of Prospect ever had. His career was conducted throughout on solid moral priciples. He desired the wealth he achieved in order that he might do good with it. He was a Christian with positive convictions. Although I do not agree with some things in the Confession of the denomination to which he clung so tenaciously, I honor him for his services to God and man.

The Fathers, where are they? Gone before. God help us to be ready to follow so that men may say of us as of him, "The memory of the just is blessed."

THE OLD HOME WEEK BOOK
History of the Village of Prospect, PA

Transcribed and Donated by Robert A. Stumpf

Chapter XXIII

The Roth Family

The founder of the Roth family in America of which the Roths of Prospect, Pennsylvania, constitute a branch, was the Reverend John Roth, a minister of the Moravian Church and for many years an efficient missionary among the Indians of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

John Roth was born at Saarmund in the Mark Brandenburg, "Alt Pruessen", near Berlin, now the capitol of United Germany, February 3rd, 1726. He was the eldest son of John Roth and wife Anna Maria, nee Schoetigens. After receiving his education, in conformity to the law and custom of his native land, he learned the trade of his father and became a master locksmith. Reared a Lutheran, he united with the Moravians at Neusalz in Prussia, in 1748, and in 1756 was sent to Pennsylvania. He came over in the "Irene", Captain Jacobson, with fifteen single brethren known as the "Henry Seidel Colony," and arrived at Bethlehem, June 6, 1756.

Soon after his arrival, John Roth began his labors among the Indians at Hain near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and occupied a cabin with the "single brethren". Acquiring the Delaware tongue in due time he was ordained to the Holy Ministy and in 1765 had become the assistant of the famous Missionary, Zeisberger. After the Paxton massacre, Roth accompanied his persecuted flock to Philadelphia and took care of them in the barracks there and on Province Island where they were decimated by the small-pox. He founded the Indian village at Schechschiquanunk on the Susquehanna River, a few miles below Wyalusing, in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and when in 1771 the two missions on the Susquehanna were abandoned on account of the hostility and base suspicions of the white settlers, he led his "Brown Sheep". as he affectionately called them, across the untrodden wilderness to Friedenstadt, on or near the present city of New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Here his life was in constant jeopardy, and in more than one instance, in imminent peril, from wild Indians when they wers under the baneful influence of the white Trader's "fire-water". The Honorable John W. Jordan in the Moravian of December 10, 1902, gives the following interesting account of this Mission and its work:-

In May of 1772, David McClure and Levi Frisbie were ordained at Dartmouth college to work of the gospel ministry, and offered themselves as missionaries to the Indians on the river Muskingum, in Ohio. On their way west, they visited the the Moravian mission at Kaskaskunk, on the site of the present town of New Castle, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and it is from the diary of the Reverend McClure that the following extracts are taken.

"At sun setting we arrived at Kuskuskoong (Kaskaskunk) and found my interpreter Joseph (Pepee) there. It was a neat Moravian village, consisting of one street and houses pretty compact, on each side, with gardens back. There was a convenient log church, with a small bell, in which the Indians assembled for morning and evening prayer. The village was full, as their brethren the Susquehanna Indians, had arrived (from Wyalusing) with Mr. Ettwein. The name of the Moravian minister stationed here is (John) Roth; David Zeisberger is the minister of the Indians going to Muskingum. The missionaries have their wives and families with them; they received me with great hospitality. At the sound of the bell, the Indians assembled in the church for evening prayer. It was lighted with candles around the walls, on which hung some paintings of Jesus in the manger of Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary, Jesus on the cross, and the Resurrection. On one side sat the elderly men and the boys by themselves, and on the other the women and girls. The evening service consisted of devout hymns in the Indian language, and in singing they all, young and old, bore a part, and the devotion was solemn and impressive. After singing a number of hymns the missionary addressed them, in a short exhortation in the Indian language, and they retired with great order and stillness to their houses. The same exercise was observed early in the morning of the following day. I was agreeably surprised to find so devout and orderly a congregation of Christian Indians in the wilderness and pleased with the meek and friendly deportment of the missionaries.,

Moravian Method of Christianizing

"The Moravians appear to have adopted the best mode of Christianizing the Indians. They go among them without noise or parade, and by their friendly behaviour, conciliate their good will. They join them in the chase, and freely distribute to the helpless, and gradually instill into the minds of individuals the principles of religion. They then invite those who are disposed to hearken to them to retire to some convenient place at a distance from the wild Indians and assist them to build a village, and teach them to plant and sow, and to carry on some coarse manufactures. Those Indians thus separated, reverence and love their instructors as their fathers, and withdraw all connection with the wild or drinking Indians. Among other instances of the attachment and respect which the Indians show them, I noticed the following circumstance, which my interpreter explained:

Before the Hunting Season

"In the morning an Indian with his gun and a small pack, and his wife, came into the house of the missionary. After conversing in a very friendly manner, the missionary affectionatey saluted the Indian man on the cheek, shook the hand of his wife, the wife of the missionary saluted the cheek of the squaw, and they departed well pleased. The substance of the conversation was as follows:

Indian -- Father, I am going hunting.

Missionary -- How long, my friend, do you expect to be gone? And where will you go?

Indian -- About six weeks -- mentioning the place or point of compass he was going.

Missionary -- Well dear friends, be always mindful of your blessed Saviour, and do nothing to displease Him, who loved you and died for you. Go not in the way of the wild Indians, but if you meet them show them much love and kindness. Be careful to pray your hymns to Jesus every night and every morning. May God prosper and bless you and bring you back in peace and safety.

"Each family has a small, well cultivated garden, and a part in the large corn-field adjoining the town. The missionaries are remarkably attentive to the cleanliness of the Indians. Two soft feather beds were carried into the church, where Rev. Mr. Ettwein and I lodged. His conversation was pleasant. ***Took leave of the friendly Moravians and set out for Mr. Gibson's, where I had left some baggage."

(Messrs. McClure and Frisbie relinquished their project when they found the Delawares provided with Moravian teachers.)

The Reverend John Roth was united in marriage at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, August 16th, 1770, with Maria Agnes Pfingstag. She was born April 4th, 1735, at Wirsche in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, and when two years of age was brought by her parents to America. She accompanied her husband to his Susquehanna River mission, faithfully shared with him all the hardships and dangers of his busy life, and as long as he lived was his loving companion and devoted helper. On horseback through the trackless forests she had carried her babe, John, born August 4th, 1771, and had several narrow escapes with her life. This son was ordained as a Congregational minister and preached for some years at Mount Hope, Orange County, New York. Removing to the vicinity of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, he entered the Presbyterian church and until his death, June 19th, 1853, served as a missionary, traveling through parts of Luzerne, Wyoming and Wayne counties, and organized a number of congregations.

After a short stay at Friedenstadt, Reverend Roth and his Christian Indians moved to Gnadenhuetten and Schoenbrunn on the Tuscarawas River, Tuscarawas county, Ohio.

The official diary of Gnadenhuetten says:- "July 4th, 1773. Today God gave Brother and Sister Roth a young son." On the day following he was baptized by Zeisberger himself, the greatest of Protestant missionaries among the Red Men of America. The sponsors were two Indians, Anton, a Delaware, and Christina, a Mohican. This son, John Lewis, was the first white child born in what is now the state of Ohio.

At Gnadenhuetten and Schoenbrunn John Roth continued his services among the Indians, until the authorities of the Moravian Church, alarmed at the dangers which menaced the frontier settlements previous to the breaking out of the Revoutionary War, called the missionary and his family back to Pennsylvania. The Indians of these missions were brutally massacred, March 8th, 1782,and the villages destroyed.**

After his return to Pensylvania, the Reverend John Roth seved Moravian congregations in Lancaster, Northampton and York counties. At. Mt. Joy, Lancaster county, his third son, John David was born, June 13yh, 1775. A fourth son, John Benjamin, became a "blue-water" or, deep-sea Captain, being ship-wrecked on the barren coast of Patagonia, seal-catching in the South Arctic Ocean, bartering pelts in Canton, China, and returning to New York, where he is buried in Trinity Churchyard. Both sons of the Reverend John Roth, Captain Benjamin and the Presbyterian clergyman changed the name Roth to "Rhodes", and so the descendants of the clergyman at Mound City, Kansas, are known today.

While in charge for the second time of the congregation at York, Pennsylvania, it is said that to Reverend John Roth was accorded the high honor of pronouncing the address of welcome to General Washington, on the occasion of his visit to York, and also of acting as Chaplain of the Congregational Congress.

At York, Pennsylvania, he died, July 22nd,1791, and was interred near his church in the burying ground of the congregation. In 1898 the grave was opened and his revered dust was brought to the cemetery of the Lutheran congregation in Prospect, where it was re-interred and the original tomb-stone placed upon his grave. There he sleeps with four generations of his descendants about him, awaiting in peace the glorious resurrection of the dead.

John David, third son of the Missionary, received his education at Nazareth Hall, a high grade school yet in vigorus operation at Nazareth, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. Secretary Cortelyou of President Roosevelt's Cabinet is one of the conspicuous graduates of recent date of tat famous school. The records show that three of the old Missionary's sons were students there together, in 1785, more than one hundred years ago.

John David followed the example of his father and learned the trade of lock-smith, or white-smith. and for a number of years at Christian Spring, and Fileton near Schoeneck, employed workmen in the manufacture of files, gun and pistol-locks and barrels, door-locks, coffee-mills. etc. After his settlement near Prospect, he and several of his sons wrought in the United States Government works at Harper's Ferry,Md.

During the War of 1812 he served as a soldier. In 1814 he was promoted from the First Lieutenant of his company to Adjutant of the 71st regiment, Pennsylvania Militia, then stationed at Marcus Hook, an important post on the Delaware below Philadelphia. Subsequently he was commissioned Major, and before the close of the war, Colonel of the 26th Pennsylvania regiment, his commission dating from August 1st, 1814.

Receiving his honorable discharge in December, 1814, when the troops were mustered out of service. Colonel David Roth returned to his family and to his trade. October 14, 1817, he was elected to the House of Representatives from the district composed of the counties of Northampton, Wayne and Pike, from which, by the way, the soldiers of his regiment had been recruited. Declining a re-election, he lived at Frysburg, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where he had the appointent of postmaster, April 15th, 1818. In the Autumn of 1821, he took up a tract of thre hundred and twenty acres of forest land through which ran the Franklin Road and the old Kuskuskia Indian Trail, just north of and adjoining the village of Prospect. There he lived an industrious and honorable life until death called him home, November 6th, 1859, at the good old age of nearly 85.

From his marriage in 1796 with Catharine, nee Altshouse, born January 8th, 1776 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, there grew a family of ten children, an equal number of sons and daughters. Marietta, his youngest daughter, died in infancy. One son, Frederick William, died at the age of twenty-five, January 9th, 1835, and rests in the Lutheran Cemetery at Frederick, Maryland.

Four sons and two daughters settled in Butler county, not far from Prospect. John, the eldest, located at Harmony and for years carried on the black-smithing business.

Benjamin Roth followed the same trade for a while in Prospect and later settled on his farm near Whitestown, Pennsylvania. Three of his sons were veterans of the Civil War; Frederick William, David C. and Alfred J.; and another, Samuel Stoughton after his education at Thiel College, Greenville, Pennsylvania, was for several successive terms, Superintendent of schools in Wells county, Indiana, editor and proprietor of a newspaper in Bluffton, the county-seat, and later principal of the Borough schools of Zelienople, Pennsylvania, where he died on Easter Sunday morning, April 25th, 1886.

Christian David, the youngest of the sons of Colonel David Roth, purchased part of his father's tract and lived there until April, 1871, when he moved to near Dixon, Tennessee, and lived upon his farm until his death, August 16th, 1878. His eldest son named after his grandfather, John David, after serving as an officer in the Civil War, studied theology and has taken a prominent place in the Lutheran Church as a preacher and author. Under Governor Altgeld he was Chaplain of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, Illinois, and served the Lutheran Church at Decatur, Illinois. His brother, Samuel Marion, interrupted his educational course and gave his life in his country's service during the Civil War. A third son, George E., pursued a course in law and was admitted to the Chicago Bar. He occupies a very responsible position in the Credit department of the Swift and Company's Packing House, Chicago, Illinois.

Of the two daughters of Colonel Roth who resided in Butler county, Susannah was married to Jacob Young. She died in the 85th year of her age, October 22nd, 1886, and was widely and affectionately known as "Aunt Susie.' The other, Salome, though more frequently called Sarah, became the wife of William Strain of Brady township. She departed this life, April 4th, 1888, in her 84th year. Their only son, John William, laid down his life upon his country's altar in the terrible War of the Rebellion.

Two of Colonel Roth's daughters married and settled in Eastern Pennsylvania. The eldest, Anna Maria, passed to the other world, February 12th, 1879, in her eightieth year. Her husband was Phillip Clewell; two of their sons entered the ministry, Theophilus, that of the United brethren, whose denominational paper published at Cleveland, Ohio, he edited for a number of years; the other Lewis P., that of the Moravian Church, which he successfuly served until his sixty second year, departing hence, January 9, 1904. His son Robert succeeds his father in the Holy Office. The other, Elizabeth, married Henry Fuehrer, and died in 1890, in her eighty-fifth year. Her grand-daughter is the wife of the Reverend Jonathan Reinke, son of Bishop Reinke of the Moravian Church, and with her husband has passed many years in the Moravian congregations, Kingston, Jamaica, their church being destroyed and the family having a miraculous escape in the awful earth-quake which left the beautiful city of Kingston in ruins.

Lewis Roth was born October 17th, 1812, in Plainfield township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. In infancy he was baptized by the Reverend Thomas Pomp. As a lad of nine he accompanied his parents when they came by wagon to Butler county. He grew to manhood assisting in the farm and also learning the black-smith trade with his father. He took part and excelled in the manly sports of his companions, shot deer and wild turkeys and smaller game, but had little opportunity of securing an education. By his own efforts, the refining influence of religious and educated parents and his own Christian home life, with but three months at school he became a truly educated and more than ordinarily intelligent man.Following upon the regular course of catachetical instruction, in his early youth, Lewis was confirmed by the Reverend G.C. Scweitzerbarth, and became a member of St. John's Lutheran Church, the "Stone" church, near Whitestown, Pennsylvania. He was united in marriage, August 31st, 1837, with Lydia Buechle, whose parents bought and settled on the Southwest section of the "Old Girty Tract" in 1797. Her father, Henry Buechle, who died in his seventieth year, August 9th, 1839, donated the land on which the "Stone" church stands and contributed largely toward its erection. With his wife, Lewis Roth made Prospect their home. Here their children were born and here they passed their quiet, peaceful and useful lives. Lewis Roth for fifteen years followed the business of a black-smith, first with Henry Kinkaid, then with Jacob Rosebach. With W.W. Dodds, James Amberson, Samuel Robinson and others in and after 1852, he engaged in general merchandising. He was a public spirited man and did what he could to advance the interests of Prospect. He had a large contract, in the building of the Plank Road from Pittsburgh to Prospect, below Whitestown and on the great hill sloping toward Crab Run. He was chosen the first Burgess when Prospect attained the dignity of a Borough and served several terms as Postmaster.

When the Reverend Gottlieb Bassler began in 1845-6 the establishment of Emmanuel English Lutheran Church, he found a warm friend and active helper in Lewis Roth. He and his wife were among the charter members of the congregation, and in the church Council and in the Sunday School, Lewis Roth was called to office by his brethren and cheerfully gave his time and means to promote the best interests of the Church. He was a diligent reader of the Bible and a man of prayer. Daily he gathered his household around the family altar and by precept and example sought to teach and lead them in the way of Life. He delighted in the companionship of good men and was happy when Christian ministers received the hospitality of his home.

Lewis Roth died, November 19th, 1886, in his seventy-fifth year; his wife, Lydia followed twelve years later, November 3rd, 1898, in her eighty-eighth year.

To these Christian parents was given a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters. An infant daughter rests in the "Stone" church burying ground. Louisa Sidney, the younger, died in 1874, leaving two sons; the elder, Catharine Marietta, in 1881, leaving two sons and three daughters. The former was the wife of Isaac N. Bueschle; the latter of Sheriff Harvey D. Thompson.

Of the sons, George Washington, enlisted in Company H.,78th Regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers and died at Nolin, Hardin county,Kentucky, December 12, 1861. John Milton studied law and was admitted to the Butler county bar. Lewis Melanchton became a dentist and resides in Prospect. Three sons are Lutheran clergymen. The Reverend Theophilus B. Roth, D.D., after graduating at Thiel College in 1874, and taking his course at the Philadelphia Seminary was ordained in 1878. He established the Church of the Redeemer, Utica, New York, and founded a number of mission congregations in the same state. In 1893 he was called as President of Thiel College, which position he held until 1903. He resides at Greenville, Pennsylvania, and is the editor and publisher of a number of church papers. His eldest son, Paul Hoerlein, a graduate of Thiel College and the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, is the successful pastor of his mission congregation at Beloit, Wisconsin, and one of the teachers in the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.

The Reverend David Luther Roth, D.D., taking his classical course at Thiel and Muhlenberg Colleges and his theological at the Philadelphia Seminary was ordained in 1876. He at once took charge of the Lunenburg parish, Nova Scotia; he served the congregation at Butler, Pennsylvania, established the Church of the Redeemer, Albany, New York, and now is in charge of Grace Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, South Side, Pennsylvania. He has published several volumes: The Holy Communion; Our Schoolmaster; Acadie and the Acadians; History of the Church in Nova Scotia, etc. His eldest son, Paul Wagner having graduated at Thiel College and the Chicago Lutheran Seminary, established a church at Elgin, Illinois, and is now assistant to the Director of the Deaconesses Institution, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Another son, Carl C.L., is a student in the Chicago Lutheran Seminary.

The Reverend Henry Warren Roth, D.D., graduated at Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1861. Studying at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pensylvania, he entered the Ministry in 1863, having charge of Grace Mission, Pttsburgh, South Side, Pennsylvania. Following a call to Thiel College he served as Professor and President of that Institution from 1870 to 1887. He then took charge of the Wicker Park Mission, Chicago, Illinois, and remained until November, 1889. He was one of the founders of the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, serving as professor of Pastoral Theology and of Church History from 1891 to 1897. On leaving Chicago, he was called to the work of the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses, serving as Director of that Institution and also of the Passavant Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has published a number of funeral discourses, biographical sketches and articles for the church papers.

** See the book entitled "Simon Girty, the Renegade"; also "Our Western Border", pp. 397-417; also "History of Bethlehem",pp. 523-4.

THE OLD HOME WEEK BOOK
History of the Village of Prospect, PA

Transcribed and Donated by Robert A. Stumpf

Addenda

Heckewelder's Narrative

Burrows Brothers' Company Edition, Cleveland, Ohio.

MCMVII

Foot Note 1; Page 237 __

Brother Ettwein conducted those who went by land and Brother Roth by water, who were the greater number. †The tediousness of this journey was a practical school of patience to the misionaries. The fatigue also attending the emigration of a whole congregation with all their goods and cattle, in a country like North America, can hardly be conceived by anyone, who has not experienced it, much less can it be described in a proper manner. The land travellers had seventy head of oxen, and a still greater number of horses to care for, and sustained incredible hardships in forcing a way for themselves and their beasts through very thick woods and swamps of great extent, being directed only by a small path, and that hardly discernable in some places, so that it appears almost impossible to conceive how any one could work his way and mark a path through such close thickets and immense woods, one of which he computed to be about sixty miles in length. It happened, that when they were thus rather creeping than walking through the thick woods, it rained almost incessantly. In one part of the country they were obliged to wade thirty-six times through the windings of the river Munsy***

The party which went by water were every night obliged to seek a lodging on shore, and suffered much from the cold. Soon after their departure from Friedenshutten the measles broke out among them, and many fell sick, especially the children.The attention due to the patients necessarily increased the fatigue of the journey. In some parts they were molested by inqusitive, and in others by drunken people. The many falls and dangerous rapids in the Susquehanna occasioned immense trouble and frequent delays. --However by the mercy of God they passed safe by Shamokin, and then upon the west arm of the river by Long Island to Great Island where they joined the land travellers on the 29th of June, and now proceeded all together by land. When they arrived at the mountains they met with great difficulties in crossing them, for not having horses enough to carry all the baggage, most of them were obliged to carry some part. In one of the valleys they were suddenly caught in a most tremendous storm of thunder and ligtning with violent rain. During a considerable part of the journey, the rattle-snakes kept them in constant alarm. As they lay in great numbers either near or in the road, Brother Ettwein happened to tread upon one with fifteen rattles by which he was so frightened that, accordng to his own account he could hardly venture to step forward for many days after and every rustling leaf made him dread the approach of a rattlesnake. The venomous creatures destroyed several horses by their bite, but the oxen were favored by being driven in the rear. ***Brother Ettwein was once in great danger of his life by a fall from his horse. Sister Roth with her child fell several times from her horse, and once with her foot dangerously entangled in the stirrup. Another time she fell into a deep morass. ***July 29th they left the mountains and arrived on the banks of the Ohio, where they immediately built canoes, to send the aged and infirm with the heavy baggage down the river. Two days after that were met by Brother Heckewelder and some Indian brothers with horses from Friedenstadt by whose assistance they arrived there on the 5th of August.**** Aug. 19th, the Brethren, Ettwein, Zeisberger and Heckewelder went to Schoenbrunn, where they arrived on the 23rd. --"Loskiels' History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, Part III, pp. 77, 778, 79, 80, 81.

Footnote (Heckewelder's Narrative --pp. 226, 227.)

"Hostilities having commenced between these 2 Nations (Cherokees and Senecas) and the Christian Indians, wishing to withdraw from their hostile neighbors, they accepted the friendly offer so repeatedly made to them by the Chiefs of Cushkushke, of coming and settling on Big Beaver River. And having in consequence informed the Chiefs of Goschgoshink of their intention, these had no objection to their going, only wishing that the Missionary might forgive and forget past injuries committed by them, which being readily granted, they parted as friends and being ready, they on the 17th day of April, 1770, set out in 16 canoes, passing down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh -- thence down the Ohio to big Beaver, thence up said river for about 20 miles from the mouth, where they halted, and commenced making a settlement, calling the place Langundown-Oteney (in English, Peace Village, by which name I shall call this place in the sequel). They had met with no other difficulty on the voyage, except a delay of 2 days, where, at the falls of the Beaver, they had to drag their canoes, and carry their baggage a mile over land, but were here met by Glickhican, with hands to help them."

Goschgoshink, mentioned above, was the name of the Moravian Mission station located where the town Tionesta now stands.

Loskiel writes this Indian name 'Landuntoutennuenk', and is followed by Dr. Schweinitz. It was on the east bank of Beaver River in the south part of what is now Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, perhaps near the town of Wampum. Dr, Schweinitz locates it 'between the Shenago River and Slippery Rock Creek', which is very indefinite. Kushkushke, or Kaskaskunk, was farther up the river, probably on the site of the present town of New Castle. An older town of the same name was at the junction of the Shenango and Mahoning. On Loskiel's map all these points are erroneously located.

Heckewelder's Narrative

The Burrows Company Edition, Cleveland

MCMVII

Footnote --p. 463

Wolves

"The Indians fasten a musket loaded with buck or swan shot, to the ground, at the end of -- and close to the trunk of a large log, or fallen tree, with the muzzle fixed towards the other end, and raised so as to point to the object intended; next a string, or thin cord, measuring the exact distance from where the gun is tied down; to the far end of the log or tree, and to which at the one end is tied a piece of meat is fastened, while the other end is tied to the trigger, is properly fixed. Then gathering, or cutting small brush, they enclose the gun and line from one end to the other -- similar to a light brush fence, which is to keep the animal off from entering the enclosure at any place from the side, which, if not prevented, he, by touching the string with his foot might cause the gun to go off to no purpose. If the log or tree, by the side of which the line is, is not supposed to be sufficient height to prevent the wolf from leaping over, small brush is also laid throughout on this log. The wolf in his range, getting the scent of the meat, and coming up, seeks for an open place to come at it, Which, being in front of the muzzle of the gun, which had been cocked, the moment he lays hold of the meat, he himself draws the trigger and is shot. I have in the year 1773, seen 16 heads of wolves which had been killed in this manner, brought in in the course of 10 days."

In the text on the same page he says: "When the rivers were covered with ice, a great number of wolves came into the parts, traversing the country in packs and attacking every animal they could meet. They came sometimes into our village, attacking and killing hogs, they would even sometimes seize the largest of them. At one time they attacked and killed a Chippewa man and his wife. At another time, one of our Indian Brethren coming from Detroit on the ice, was pursued by a pack of these animals, for several miles, but being furnished with skates, they could not come up with him. Many, however, were killed by our Indians, by decoying them to places, where they destroyed themselves.

Heckewelder's Narrative

Barrows Brothers Company Edition, Cleveland, O.

MCMVII

Pages 31-32

Heckewelder was married in 170, to iss Sarah Ohneberg. She went with him to the wilderness of the Muskingum. Their daughter Johanna Maria was born April 6, 1781, ar Salem, now Tuscarawas County, Ohio, She was the first white female child bor in the state, and the first child born in the state, of permanent settlers -- the first white child born in a home in Ohio. Heckewelder's wife died in 1815. ***Johanna Maria died unmarried at Bethlehem, September 19, 1868.***

Slippery Rock

Emptying into the Big Beaver from the north east, in Lawrence county. In Delaware Weschachachapohka, ie., a slippery rock. Vide appendix to Heckewelder's narrative, p. 565.

On Hector St. John Crevecoeur's map of the Old West, 1787, footnote reproduced in "The Wilderness Trail," by Charles A Hanna, two volumes, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1911, vol. two; the basin or water-shed drained by the Beaver River, into which the principal streams of Butler County discharge their waters, is given under the title, "Esquisse da la Riviere du Grand Castor, pour les Lettres d'un Cultivater Ameriquain."

The Slippery-rock is there figured under the name "Riviere de la Pierre Platte" and opposite to its confluence with the Beaver is located the "Mission Morave."

Crevecoeur indicates on his "Esquisse des Rivieres Muskinghum et Grand Castor," a "Fontaine Salee", near the junction of a tributary of the "Conasaquining", entering from the south, the second from its mouth, probably Breakneck or Thorn Creek, near which he also locates an Indian village, probably Murdering Town.

Morgan's Marker.*

Major George W. Rue, who received the cofederate general's sword, was the guest of honor at the dedication of the marker erected on the spot where the surrender took place, near West Point, seven miles north of East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio, Sept. 21, 1910. The marker is a granite boulder, six feet high. weighing 10 or 12 tons. It is faced with a bronze tablet the inscription on which reads:

"This stone marks the spot where the Confederate raider, Gen. John H. Morgan, surrendered his command to Maj. George W. Rue, July 26, 1863, and is the farthest point north reached by any body of Confederate troops during the Civil ar."

*Vide p. 121

When Morgan started through Ohio from the south he had 3,500 men. When the surrender was demanded he was asleep under a tree. Three men advanced when they saw a Union line across the road, bearing a flag of truce, a white handkerchief tied to a sword. Not a shot was fired during the surrender, but after the arms of the raiders were collected they were discharged by the Union soldiers and the bullets are still occasionaly picked up in the fields. The idea of erecting this monument originated with Will L. Thompson, a gifted writer of poetry.

Major Rue is now 83 years old, a resident of Hamilton, Ohio. He says the Confederates were trying to reach the Ohio river, Morgan knowing that at the foot of Babb's Island, near East Liverpool, was the only place where the river could be forded.

*Vide p. 121.

Another of Our Soldiers*

To the list of "Our Soldiers" should be added the name of Valentine Evans Kinzer, one of my boyhood companions. He was named Valentine after his grandfather, Valentine Myrose, an old soldier who served under Napoleon in the Russian campaign. Another of Napoleon's soldiers who lived near Prospect was Daniel Heck. V.E. Kinzer's father called him "Volley" and we boys called him "Vol." He is living in Pittsburg, N.S. Among my keepsakes is a finger-ring, carved by him from a bone, reputedly of a man, more likely of a beef, while he was in the army, and emblazoned with his initials in red sealing wax on the set.

Date of Organization of the .P. Church.†

Note that on page 27 reference is made to the date of organization of the United Presbyterian Church.This organizatin was effected in Pittsburg on the 26th of May, 1858, by uniting the Associate and the Associate Reformed Churches. By one line the United Prebyterian Church is descended from the Covenanters of Scotland; by the other line it is descended from a body of men who were imbued with the ideas which later developed the Free Kirk of Scotland.

The Big Frost

The history of our village would not be complete without some reference to The Big Frost. The season had been propitious, everything in the fields and orchards and gardens was full of promise when, on the night of Saturday, June 4, 1859, the cold which God allowed to come down out of the North, descended in black ruin upon every growing plant and leaf, seared and devastated the tender grain, fruit and vegetables over an unknown stretch of territory in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, and filled the people of the region round about with ominous forebodings of famine and general starvation. Vividly does the writer remember the scene in front of the village church on the Sunday morning of the 5th of June, 1859. The farmers each brought in his hand a spray of wheat or rye from the frozen crop on his field and dark were their faces and mournful their forecastings as they faced and commented on the gloomy outlook. There were no thousand acre farms in the wide West in those days from which the world was fed. The means of transporting supplies from one section to another were wanting even if the surplus existed. Each community was to a great extent far more than now, self-supporting. If it could not support itself from its own resources, it must inevitably suffer. Such being the case, the frost which, blighted all he crops at one fell sweep was nothing short of calamity. And so the citizens regarded it. Prospect was sorely stricken. But Prospect picked up its courage and made the best of a bad job. The fields in which the wheat and rye stood frozen were plowed and seeded in buckwheat, the corn was replanted, and while there was perhaps, scarcity, there was no actual suffering; for the Autumn proving propitious much of the late corn matured and the buckwheat crop was one of the largest ever produced in Butler county. And Butler County's buckwheat crop always ranked high. In fact it was the crop that first made the county famous. And the buckwheat-cakes of Butler County with good butter and honey or sausage with brown gravy -- Yum, Yum, Yum!

The only drawback really felt was in the beginning when the farmers ran out of seed io sow and corn to plant. Then the neighborly good-feeling existing became apparent. Those who had more old grain than they neded sold at a reasonable prices to those who lacked. Some even gave of their small surplus without money and without price. One of these was Michael West, a good man and successful farmer, who brought seed to my father without waiting to be asked for it, and would take no money in payment. Only after the harvest was garnered fom the seed he had brought ws payment accepted in kind.

*Vide p. 118. †Vide p. 27.

Adieu !

And now to conclude. This book is not of the common run of books. It is not fiction. It is not a love-story. It is not general history. It is the loving tribute of the authors to the people and place of their nativity, to rescue from oblivion and to preserve for a future generation the things herein written in the fond hope that when the next Old Home Week celebration shall be held, their work may not be counted vain. May the dear village grow and prosper and may unnumbered blessings descend and abide upon all her people !

Adieu!

Beaver Printing Co.

Greenville, Pa.